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An old friend recently parted ways with IBM after he was asked to relocate from the middle of nowhere to one of their major offices. They offered him minimal r

An old friend recently parted ways with IBM after he was asked to relocate from the middle of nowhere to one of their major offices. They offered him minimal relocation, and a minimal COL based raise to move. He did the math, and realized that the cost of living was so high where was being asked to relocated (Almaden), that he'd be better off just letting his wife be the primary breadwinner and living on one income.

srinathrajaram 10y ago
That really sucks! The level of dissonance in this is overwhelming. In March - You need to work shoulder to shoulder "https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-thousands-of-employees-back-to-the-office/" https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-tho... In May - we have a survey and a study and a panel that proves remote working is great! I don't envy the guy in IBM who has to sell Kenexa (https://www.ibm.com/blogs/smarter-workforce/2017/05/making-telework-work-insights-siop-2017/ https://www.ibm.com/blogs/smarter-workforce/2017/05/making-t...).
- drewg123 10y ago
  Yeah, it really sucked. He came in as part of an acquisition 7 or 8 years ago, and had been working remote for 10+ years from the same location. His kids were happy in school, his wife was happy in her job, they were involved in the local community. It just didn't make sense for them to move, financially or socially. The odd thing was that for him, this happened about a year ago. I think the edict came down almost exactly one year ago; this article makes it sound more recent.
  - xemdetia 10y ago
    From what I hear it's more of a staged rollout of who they are dragging back to the office. So waves of people are being disrupted and often making the obvious choice that seeking other employment is the best option. Or worse people that have a local office but their 'team' is based far enough away that it still counts as relocate or die.
    - zeveb 10y ago
      IBM has been dragging folks back to the office since 2009 (IIRC). They're not wrong about the benefits of colocation; it's just that they want the company to receive those benefits without compensating employees whatsoever.
      - ntsplnkv2 10y ago
        Exactly. Look, if you already offer work from home, forget about taking it away. That will just piss people off, make people unhappy, hate management, and be less productive.
  - bhgraham 10y ago
    Yeah I was given the same choice around last March.

srinathrajaram 10y ago

That really sucks! The level of dissonance in this is overwhelming. In March - You need to work shoulder to shoulder "https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-thousands-of-employees-back-to-the-office/" https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-tho... In May - we have a survey and a study and a panel that proves remote working is great! I don't envy the guy in IBM who has to sell Kenexa (https://www.ibm.com/blogs/smarter-workforce/2017/05/making-telework-work-insights-siop-2017/ https://www.ibm.com/blogs/smarter-workforce/2017/05/making-t...).

drewg123 10y ago
Yeah, it really sucked. He came in as part of an acquisition 7 or 8 years ago, and had been working remote for 10+ years from the same location. His kids were happy in school, his wife was happy in her job, they were involved in the local community. It just didn't make sense for them to move, financially or socially. The odd thing was that for him, this happened about a year ago. I think the edict came down almost exactly one year ago; this article makes it sound more recent.
- xemdetia 10y ago
  From what I hear it's more of a staged rollout of who they are dragging back to the office. So waves of people are being disrupted and often making the obvious choice that seeking other employment is the best option. Or worse people that have a local office but their 'team' is based far enough away that it still counts as relocate or die.
  - zeveb 10y ago
    IBM has been dragging folks back to the office since 2009 (IIRC). They're not wrong about the benefits of colocation; it's just that they want the company to receive those benefits without compensating employees whatsoever.
    - ntsplnkv2 10y ago
      Exactly. Look, if you already offer work from home, forget about taking it away. That will just piss people off, make people unhappy, hate management, and be less productive.
- bhgraham 10y ago
  Yeah I was given the same choice around last March.